The new Google Bar has a drop-down menu, a search bar and Google+ tools instead of the traditional horizontal black bar at the top of the screen

Google has been working on a new design for its Search and product pages over the last six months, and it has finally offered a preview of the end result.

The new Google Search design consists of a new navigation bar. Google users are familiar with the traditional horizontal, black navigation bar at the top of the screen, which includes links to Google products and Google+ tools. But now, this bar will be eliminated entirely and replaced with the all-new Google bar.

The new Google bar has a drop-down menu that can be accessed by clicking the Google logo in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. This menu offers options like Search, Images, Maps, YouTube, News, Mail Documents and more.

Moving horizontally to the right is a search bar nestled right next to the Google drop-down menu.

To the far right of the new Google bar is a set of Google+ tools that allows a user to jump to their Google+ page, receive instant notifications, and even share photos, videos, text, maps, etc. with Google+ friends or Circles. Clearly, Google is trying to make Google+ a bit more apparent to those who either do not have a Google+ account or have one but forgot about it.

Click on the Gear in the top-right corner of the screen.Go to Mail SettingsClick on ThemesPick one that's not too bright for you.

There are plenty of valid complaints of the new Gmail interface. "Too bright" is not one of them.

For example, the new interface is incredibly slow in Firefox. Perhaps Google hasn't addressed this issue because it's an issue with Firefox and they are attempting to put pressure on that organization. Perhaps Google simply didn't care enough about Firefox to work around the issue. I don't know.

I use Firefox as my main browser, and it's now painful to check my email because of the sluggishness.

1. What version of Firefox are you running?2. Are you encountering the same issues with IE, Opera, etc.?3. Sometimes clearing up temporary files, cache, cookies, etc. and doing an uninstall and fresh install helps.

quote: There are plenty of valid complaints of the new Gmail interface. "Too bright" is not one of them.

I don't like the default appearance of the new Gmail, but I like how they're adding lots of options for the appearance. Each individual is able to tailor it to their own preference, instead of having to live with a monolithic universal standard. I was able to toggle a few options and get it back to something I liked.

quote: I use Firefox as my main browser, and it's now painful to check my email because of the sluggishness.

Firefox crashes frequently enough for me that I installed Chrome as my "Gmail app". I do my web browsing on Firefox, and keep Gmail/Google Docs/G+ open in Chrome.